Author: Mark Thomas
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Racking ’em up at the Supreme Court
The Roberts Supreme Court Pool sharks are portrayed on film much more often than Chief Justices. Perhaps the game of chance involving billiard balls is more familiar to the general public than legal concepts described in Latin. For my money, I’d cast Jackie Gleason to play Chief Justice John Roberts for the same reasons Robert…
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Sputnik moments in the age of education reform
Sputnik moments On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first manned space satellite, Sputnik 1. Though then President Dwight Eisenhower knew well in advance of the impending event, his calculations as to the American public’s response to Sputnik proved greatly underestimated. The sense of vulnerability felt by a majority of Americans prompted a…
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Economic Interpretations of the Constitution
Products of their times In my own odd duck way, I’m enjoying reading two related classics on the economic factors that may or may not have influenced the construction of the U.S. Constitution. Initially intended as a bit of catching up on a famous book neglected only due to life’s other demands, my reading of…
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Constitution Day – 2013
Constitution Day – breaking the vacuum Coincidental to today’s celebration of Constitution Day, I began reading for the first time the Charles Beard 1913 classic, An economic interpretation of the United States Constitution. As with any topic of history, one pursuit becomes many, such is the case with my belated study of Beard’s groundbreaking work.…